Thursday, June 7, 2012

DIY Chalkboard

I've been wanting to make a chalkboard for Olivia's room for months now.

My plan has been to have this chalkboard serve as a designated place to post Olivia's memory verse from church. NewSpring has a hands-down, A-MAZ-ING children's ministry, and every few weeks the children get a new memory verse to memorize.

So in an effort to keep me on my game, I wanted to hang the memory verses in Olivia's room to remind me every day to practice them with Olivia.

I started with a trip to the Habitat ReStore, and found this super thin plywood. It was 34" X 31" and about 3/16" thick. And, SCORE!! It was a whopping $1.00! Double SCORE!! It was large enough to make a chalkboard for Olivia and for new baby!

I also bought a can of chalkboard spray paint at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon which made it $3 and some change!

I made my measurements and ripped the plywood down to size on the table saw. (I'm probably the only pregnant gal on the planet that uses a table saw solo while my 3-year-old naps! I'm crazy like that!)

This actually gave me 4 boards of equal size.

Then I used the jigsaw to cut off the corners--straight cuts for baby boy's chalkboard...

and curved cuts for Olivia's chalkboard.

Then I quickly sanded each board with 220 sandpaper.

I drilled two holes at the top of each board using a large drill bit.

Then I spray painted each board with two coats of the chalkboard spray paint.

Here's Olivia's chalkboard. I hung it with ribbon I had laying around in a drawer that I bought ages ago with intentions of making a hair bow out of. Seems like I paid $0.25 for the whole spool of ribbon at either GW or SA! This was a high dollar project, let me tell 'ya!

This morning Olivia and I worked on reciting and writing out this week's memory verse. Now, it's out and in front of us everyday which will serve as a reminder to practice, practice, practice!!

About Me

Hey! I'm Leigh. I'm a southern girl through and through. My hubby, Kevin, and I live in upstate SC. We have an eight year old daughter, Olivia, and our son, Davis, is four. They are featured here A LOT! So is our dog, Bailey (or "B" as we often call him.)
Sincerely, Leigh is a place to share...well...life. I hope you find something interesting, funny or just plain crazy here. All in all, this is a place to recap and share all the moments that make a lifetime.